Lunch and a Show

A snippet of today's lunch conversation:

Megan: "Mommy, what's that new song we learned about beans?"
Me: "What song? I don't remember."
Megan: "Oh, I remember... Beans, beans, the magical fruit. The more you eat the more you toot."

(insert wild laughter here from Bridget, and giddy smiles from the babies, happily enjoying their dining entertainment)

Here I was worried about what other kids would expose Megan to at school. I forgot to worry about the exposure from Uncle Kyle! Thanks Kyle - now the girls want to sing the bean song all the time, and I have it stuck in my head!

To Be Fair, Part 1

I feel like most of my blogging centers on the babies, documenting their every move and milestone. So, in an effort to balance things out (and just in case the girls get a hold of this blog in ten years), this post is all about Bridget, our little firecracker.

Bridget is 2 years, 4 months, going on 16. She is full of personality, and soaks up everything around her. About 10 times a day, we're asked, "What are you guys talking about right now?" Nothing escapes her. Her vocabulary is incredible, mostly because she spends all day, every day with a three year old who wants to have detailed make-believe conversations with her and the rest of the princesses, princes, pirates and dragons in their crew.

She loves showing us her "happy face" even in the middle of a tantrum, and forgets what she was upset about the moment one of her babies enter the room. Although she's already been kicked out of her crib and her diapers, she still likes to be a baby sometimes. She drinks her milk from a bottle -- gasp!! Considering what a trooper she's been so far with the explosion in our family (and the irreparable psychological damage done to her by virtue of being the middle child, of course!) we'll let her drink from her bottle for a few more months :)

She's alternately a ham,


goofball,

cuddlebug and adoring big sister,

colorer and Doodle-Pro extraordinaire,

reader,

clothed and otherwise,

and worshiper of her big sister.

Some more Bridget stats for her fans and her baby book:

Favorite Book: Goodnight Moon

Favorite Movie: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Favorite Cartoon: Oswald

Favorite Song: "Papa's Song" (Papa's Gonna Buy You a Mockingbird), Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Her Naptime and Bedtime Companions: No less than 3 specific blankets, her doggie, her sippy cup of water, and an assortment of dolls with their blankets

Favorite Foods: Chicken nuggets with ranch, juice, oatmeal, rice, pasta, juice, artichokes, tacos, juice, and, oh, did I mention juice?

We love her!

Stay tuned for Megan's turn in the spotlight :)

8 Months (A Little Late)

They eat.

They sleep.

They play.

At eight months, we have two very happy babies who are finally sleeping through the night!! This is absolutely life-changing! It really makes all of the chaos during the day that much more tolerable. Knowing that the day really does end at 7pm is amazing. And, they're good sleepers, too! Matt was drilling in the garage tonight, right under their cribs, and they slept through it. I can do laundry at night now without worrying about waking a baby. (I know, that's pretty pathetic that doing laundry is such a huge deal.) They're agreeable to being schlepped in the car constantly, eating whatever we put in front of them, and just generally going with the flow.


They are also both crawling, and they can get wherever they want to pretty quickly! This is one of the reasons a little eight month photo shoot was a challenge. These are the cream of the crop.

Tessa (left) and Annie (right)

Adventures in Babysitting: "I'm 2, Gimme A Break!"

I'm amazed, daily, by how quickly Megan and Bridget are growing up, and how much they help out when they see the need. They offer the babies unsolicited kisses, hugs, toys, scrubbings at bathtime, and words of encouragement ("Tessa, good job!! I didn't know you knew how to say Dada. What a big girl. Mommy, did you know Tessa can say Dada??!!").

They also offer them a LOT of Cheerios. This is normally no big deal and actually a big help while the babies are in their high chairs waiting for their meal or just plain waiting while I (or Matt - he does cook a lot!) make dinner for everyone else. The girls will color at the dining room table and take turns popping Cheerios in the babies' mouths.

So, I figured I was safe asking Bridget to feed the babies while they sat in their high chairs this morning. They were fussing a little bit and needed a little refill on their tray, and Bridget is usually the girl for that job. I took the opportunity to brush my teeth and get dressed, and realized that it was suddenly very quiet. That's good, but then I heard Bridget say, "Mommy, they have food now. Annie has a lot of food!" Hmmmm. Yeah, I had to check that out.

I put down my toothbrush mid-brushing and came downstairs to find a very proud Bridget sitting cross-legged on top of the table between the high chairs, Annie and her highchair tray completely covered with a mountain of rice cereal, Tessa's tray somewhat covered, and the remainder of the rice cereal box on the floor. I guess I should have been more specific when I asked Bridget to feed them. (For you infant-less people, or people like Sara who somehow skip the whole baby food stage altogether, rice cereal is a fine powder that's supposed to be mixed with water or formula or breast milk, and it's nothing like Cheerios!) Annie didn't seem to mind the mess or how dry her breakfast was, and was busy snacking away.

Added to my to-do list: cleaning up that huge mess and two messy babies. Pushed down on the list: getting dressed.

It's easy to forget that my underpaid mother's helpers are only 2 and 3 years old. This kind of chaos comes with the territory when you have toddlers babysitting.

In Their Identical Glory

It's probably not suitable for a blog, or anywhere, for that matter, but I just have to share these pictures of our little naked babies. (I'm fairly certain that Matt would disapprove if he knew I was doing this!)

Tessa's the one with the back rolls. Other than that difference, it's hard to tell them apart. I can see why most people have trouble!

Four Little Monkeys Going to the Zoo...

I was hoping they had some kind of monkey drop-off program today. You know, donate a monkey - that kind of thing. That didn't work out.

But, we did walk out of there with something equally impossible - a picture of me and my little monkies out for a leisurely morning at the zoo. This is one of the things I didn't think I'd be able to do alone anymore once the twins came along, but we did it! Yes, I am crazy, as many strangers told me today when they would pass by and count my kids. But, we survived without any major meltdowns. As for the photographic evidence of it -- a zoo employee was there taking pictures as people walked in, and I was a total sucker, since I don't have very many photos of me out with the girls.

This is us as we were walking in. I have Tessa in the Ergo, Annie's in her car seat, Megan's riding in front, and Bridget gamely agreed to stand on the side of the stroller and hang on as we made the trek in to the zoo from the car. Usually, Megan and Bridget will each take a side of the stroller. I know, totally safe, right?


On the way back to the car, we had a slightly different picture: Me carrying Annie in the Baby Bjorn on my chest, and Bridget on my back in the Ergo, with Megan and Tessa asleep in the stroller. The weight of Annie and Bridget nearly toppled me over a few times when I had to bend down to get something for Megan. (It reminded me of my HUGE backpack when I was backpacking through Europe. I fell over a few times with that thing, too.) Short of a quadruple stroller, which does exist, this is the best it gets in terms of happy kids (read: they don't have to worry about their transport - mom does it for them).

Of course, in between going and coming, I did manage to get a few good shots of the girls. They had a lot of fun at the playground inside the zoo, especially since there are a ton of swings! Enough that they didn't have to take turns, always a plus!

While I was taking individual shots of the girls, I realized that I have a picture of Megan on the same swings when she was about 18 months old. For comparison:

And, the rest of the crew:

Tessa


Annie

Speaking of monkeys...Bridget is a crazy one.

6 under 4

I bravely took on two extra kids yesterday morning while Sara and Tim spent some quality time with Cecchin baby #3. (Grandchild #7 for Mop and Pop!) They got some amazing ultrasound pictures while I tried to control the chaos of six kids 3 and under at my house.

It probably didn't help things that I offered the four "big kids" lollipops at about 10am. It was a quick diversion that led to even more chaos.

Check them out celebrating with some lollipop "Cheers!"

And, about two minutes later, racing at top speed around the obstacle course of baby toys that we call our house:

Later, when the sugar highs wore off, we:

• had a great discussion about babies living in heaven before they're born. They live "way up high above the clouds, so you can't see them," according to Joey.
• fought over a little red car (we do have some boy toys around here!)
• witnessed some more loving/hating between Bridget and Clara - lots of poking and scowling going on
• clipped everyone's fingernails except Clara's - I think she was playing the piano at that moment
• had one pee incident (Bridget)
• reorganized our master bedroom closet (not me - them! You can imagine the result)
• finally watched about 10 minutes of Max and Ruby while I made lunch - ahhh, sweet silence!

I figure I owe Sara about 20 more mornings like this, since she watched Megan and Bridget almost once a week when I was pregnant with the twins. Maybe I'll dip those lollipops in some Benadryl next time :) Or, resort to cartoons immediately!

Monsters Under the Bed!

These little creatures wreak havoc all night long, and seem to have superhuman energy during the day. They have a penchant for anything princess and have a very peculiar diet, consisting mostly of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and mandarin oranges. The little ones are starting to eat through everything in our pantry, too! They all calm down briefly if we turn on certain cartoons - very strange!

This one appears to be the ringleader. Just look at how she's baring her teeth.

This one's equally scary.

And, these monsters-in-training look so sweet and innocent here, don't they?

If anyone has any experience with this species, let me know. I included a picture of all four that I was barely able to get before they skittered and scattered in different directions today.

Help!!

Sitting Pretty

When helping a baby to sit up on their own, you need a few things: some patience, time to sit with them, and free hands to spot them and catch them when they fall. All of these things are in short supply around here. That's my excuse for the babies not sitting up until now, anyway.

At 7.5 months, they can finally sit long enough for me to grab the camera (and have it be charged if I'm lucky!), and take the picture before Megan or Bridget tackles me for their turn to take a picture.

Here are our little ladies sitting pretty - it's a whole new world and a new perspective when you can play with your toys from this angle!

Tessa

Annie

One Little Girl In Blue

This may be the closest we come to a little baby boy.

I bought these pj's yesterday, thinking the rainbow stripes would be a little more unisex. Oh well. I still love them.

These pictures remind me of the stories my mom tells about dressing up her baby brother Joe in little girl clothes, and then parading him around their neighborhood to introduce the latest addition to the family. He doesn't seem too scarred, so I'm not worried about Annie.

While I was torturing Annie, I got some cute pictures of both babies. Obviously, Tessa's in pink:

A Princess Story

We are well-versed in princess stories in this house - those with princes, those with dragons, and those with pirates. We read them, we tell them, we act them, and we can't get enough of them. Well, Megan and Bridget can't, anyway.

Here's a princess story from yesterday:

Once upon a time, in a not-so-far-away land, four little princesses woke up to find something very strange peeking through the window -- something very strange indeed. It was the sun! Now, these little princesses don't see the sun very much unless they travel very far in the car or very far in an airplane. You see, these little princesses live in a very foggy little town. So, when they saw this magical sun peeking through their curtains, they just had to go outside and explore!

They ran to their mommy, the beautiful queen, and asked if they could go outside, and she granted them their wish.



What more could four little princesses ask for?

And, the queen got to sit in the sun and drink a cup of coffee.

They all lived happily ever after, until someone had a meltdown/injury/spit-up incident/poopy diaper/the fog rolled back in.

Why does the story always have to come to an end?

Halloween 2009!

Our cast of The Wizard of Oz granted their fans a very small window of time to take pictures:

We were lucky they allowed Matt and I to pose with them here :) This is probably picture #5 of all six of us together in one picture. As you can see, we're not choosy at this point:

Why else do you dress up babies if not to try to get really good "First Halloween" pictures? It was all worth it! Now we can put Tessa and Annie's pictures next to Megan the Chicken and Bridget the Peacock.

Annie

Tessa

Grandma and Grandpa made their rounds that night, too!

And, last but not least, Mop with all of her girls (and Joey - poor Joey!!!).

I think Megan was a little tired of the picture-taking at this point!